Looking for a good daily driver

Unless you really really care about reliability, the Toyota is kind of in last place. The Tundra and Tacoma have proven to last to over 250k miles easily. In my opinion, the clear winner is the F-150. The new Silverado just isn't as good of a value as the F-150. The RAM 1500 is the most comfortable truck, but I would worry about reliability. The RAM is entirely new for 2019 and with the new technology comes a sacrifice in reliability.

Since you don't need all the bells and whistles, the Toyota might be the best choice for its reliability and standard safety features. If you do want the most modern features (you said you didn't) such as trailer parking assist and air suspension, the other options are all better. The 2008 and newer trucks are the best years.

For your need for rear seat space, the Tundra has about 4 inches less combined legroom than the three other trucks. Despite this, all the trucks with the double cab have a very spacious rear seat so that isn't too important to worry about.

This is more of a matter of test driving than anything else, but I think the Tundra and Tacoma are the best trucks to buy used. The regulars on TrueDelta including me don't own a truck, but we would love to hear what you end up buying and why.

I have rented the Ford F-150 very recently and for normal driving, not the best riding truck with no load in it. With a load, it rides fine. That is a serious truck meant for carrying stuff. If you drive it around with nothing in the bed, be prepared for a rough ride.

Chevy rides better when I rented that but as of late the transmission has been an issue for it. It just went through another redeisgn so no idea if they improved it or not.

The Toyota Tacoma is unfortunately made in Tijuana,Mexicoso rumors about it being so reliable are not so true. Its transmission in particular has been suspect to premature failure. Especially since its redesign in 2016.

The Dodge Ram its powertrain is relatively fine, but has other problems mostly with electronics.

So if reliablity is of key importance, you are limited to only the Toyota Tundra. That car is made in San Antonio, Texas, and has a pretty good track record. After that the Ford F-150 is also pretty reliable and made in the USA. After those two, it really does not make that much difference as they all have reliabilty issues and inbetween those models you are probably just exchanging some issues for others. Your old Tahoe is better than the newer ones, but as I said, it was redesigned again recently because the previous generation had too many mechanical issues (it was only redesigned after a few years).

I overlooked the OP's budget of $22k. That would knock out the newer less reliable trucks. The transmission in the new Tacomas have not failed. They shifted roughly and Toyota has a software update for it. The TrueDelta members that have reported this issue have said the update fixed the problem. I've never ever heard someone say the 2nd gen Tacoma is not reliable so I'm not sure where you got that. They have been some of the most reliable vehicles on the road for the last 13 years. TrueDelta shows that the Tacoma has never been even into the yellow part of the scale. Consumer Reports shows that until 2016 it has never been worse than "Very Good." In fact, the Tacomas often last longer than the V8 Tundras. The Tacomas have been made in both Tijuana and San Antonio alongside the Tundra. The truck bed is the majority of what is made in Mexico.

With a budget of $22k, I wouldn't count on a RAM or F-150 being reliable. TrueDelta says the Silverado is more reliable than the RAM or F-150 if it is an older model.

I went to boards this time to investigate which is how I came up with the tranmission concerns. There are reports of bad shifting and Toyota did a software release to try to reduce it which was met with mixed success (users said the problem remained in many cases on the boards). Users said if you use a light throttle the transmission still gets confused and it is not certain when to shift, making it harder to drive if you don't put your foot down. With adequate throttle, the issue is not there. So if you like to drive your truck hard, it is not a problem for anyone.

My suggestion is he should test drive the truck and drive it like he usually does. If he drives it with a light throttle and does not experience the shifting "confusion" then sure, it is fine and he should get it. It just make a fair percentage of customers upset with it. So I may have overstated the transmission issue a little, but it is still there even on the 2018 (but from what I could read, more people are happier with the transmission as Toyota may have made some more changes to it so it shifts better).

Another thing people complain about is that the transmission shifts up rapidly under soft acceleration - sometimes too rapidly - and then had to downshift again as the engine bogs down. This is an ongoing issue and probably is the parallel to the "light acceleration" I saw mentioned online.

There is also the "Repair Pal" website mentioning common issues with that truck transmission over time. About 150 reports of shifting issues at around 125,000 miles. Just look at this link under transmission for 150 reports (not a small number considering how few report on the site). It is an eye opener as the transmission issues are being reported on trucks: https://repairpal.com/problems/toyota/tacoma

Of course, he would be getting an older truck at $22K and the older generation does not suffer from the same transmission concerns the newer truck has. You are right, the Silverado (older than 2014) is a pretty decent truck and has improved reliablity. With the Ford, reliablity is improved from 2014 and newer. The Dodge Ram the last couple of years are better, but the older ones cannot compare as far as reilability goes.

Assembly location usually matters much less than people tend to assume. Even if a pickup is assembled in Mexico, the engine and transmission are generally manufactured elsewhere, and the entire vehicle was definitely engineered elsewhere. If the product is designed and engineered well, and the plant is managed well, Mexicans will put it together just fine.

While true in this case with the Toyota it is not. It does not have to do with the location, but it definately has to do with the design of the transmission.